Or, if the will and sovereignty of God, And snap the chain the moment when you may." COWPER. SECT. V.THE SOURCES OF SLAVERY. IF liberty is the birthright of every human being, in what manner have persons become slaves? This is a very natural question. We should think liberty so dear a blessing, that every one would most strenuously maintain and defend it, and watch against every thing that might endanger it. Fellow feeling, we should think, would also prompt every man to defend this sacred right of his neighbour against encroachment; and that, if an attempt should be made to enslave one man, the whole neighbourhood would rise to defend or rescue him; and that thus slavery must be of very rare occurrence, and its extensive prevalence absolutely impossible. This, however, is very far from being the true state of the case. Among the causes of slavery may be mentioned 1. Crime.-On account of their crimes, some persons have been condemned to labour in a state of slavery for a limited time, or for the remainder of life. 2. Captives taken in war have been either detained and employed as slaves in public works, or sold to individuals, or appropriated by the captors for their own private use, as any other part of the booty taken in war. Persons thus becoming slaves, WHEN bi suvery ben &: a very ears period. We ar ma knw whether I EKSEL HELME the food; but, as he presumptuous Viskemes of man had risen to such an avi nein, as u cal for that judgment from a genus God, we car scamer think tha, among the monstrous eis fiat m valled, the oppression of my ne a conspicuous puace. Indeed, the predictive curse pronounced soon after the food, uguns. Eam and his posterity, a servant of servants, D & STOVE DE slaves,) shall be be a las iretice, woud have been unintelligitue if sixvery hat been mETOWL. In rather more than a carry after the fund. Nimrod, the son of Cush. grantsin of Han and great-grandson of Noah, was proverbially distinguished as a "mighty hunter before the Lord.” This phrase, "before the Lord," when applied to a good man, intimates that he acted as realizing the presence of God, and enjoying the Divine approbation and favour. Thus it is said that "Noah was righteous before the Lord;" and Abraham was thus addressed," I am the Almighty God, walk thou before me, and be thou perfect.' But when the phrase is applied to a wicked man, it generally expresses his presumptuous defiance of the Lord. Thus it is said, "the men of Sodom were wicked, and sinners before the Lord exceedingly." It is probable that the phrase, as applied to Nimrod, denotes his daring haughty spirit, which led him, in his ambitious pursuits, to disregard the laws of God and the rights of men. Up to his time, government had been patriarchal; that is, each father had governed in his own family; but Nimrod is the first mentioned king and conqueror. He might hunt wild beasts, but it is pretty evident that he also hunted down men, and made them subservient to his ambition and usurpation. He founded the royal city, afterwards called Babel or Babylon, and thence went forth to conquer and subdue, and usurp dominion over the inhabitants of other places. He was, in all probability, the leader of that presumptuous enterprise, the building of a city whose walls should reach to heaven, and should become the centre of a universal monarchy. In the prosecution of these ambitious designs, we can easily imagine that Nimrod must have reduced vast numbers of his fellow-creatures to subjection, either to the labour of slavery or the captivity of war; indeed we can scarcely suppose it to have been other wise; and general surmise produicy ủ es THE 277 11 assigning to Narod the zimous costictin đế being the parent of posttmat sivery. It s certain that, in the time of Arial some knČ of slavery was very on, fr we read repeated of servants which were his propery, be 11 E house, or bought with his money, presented we him by some prince with whom he was in fenc alliance, and from henceforward dust every entmeration of patriarchal wealth couins de ten, "men-servants and maid-serrals.” From the character of Abraham, we have every reason as conclude that these persons were treated 14 im not only with justice and Ly, but will pe ternal kindness; and, in many instros, tear being placed in his fandy was dolom a pres blessing to them, as the means of bringing them to an acquaintance with the true God. The saHE remark will apply to the pious patriarchs in gene ral. Still we cannot but see the evil cscected with a condition which entrusts one man with ab solute dominion over another, the possibility and even danger that he may abuse it. It is very pos sible that humane and conscientions persons, living in times and countries where slavery was the usual mode of servitude, may have fallen into the castin without perceiving the danger of its principle, and without any disposition to abuse the arbitrary power they possessed; but such instances, however numerous, must be regarded as the exceptions, which do not set aside the general rule that fallen man, acquiring absolute power over his natural equais will, in all probability, abuse it. About a hundred and fifty years afterwards, we find that the descendants of Ishmael, and of admitting that, in all probability, the persons to whom these exhortations were addressed were bond slaves, for that was the common case of servants in those days, it may be remarked, that the gospel takes men as it finds them, and gives them directions for their conduct in that condition, rather than directs them to change it; but this, by no means, implies approbation of the condition itself; it only shows the excellency of the gospel, which is a universal blessing, and is almost the only blessing from which a poor slave is not excluded. If a wife became a christian, she was not directed to forsake her heathen husband, but so to conduct herself towards him, as might be the means of winning him to love religion: but this did not imply approbation, or even permission, of the marriage of christians with heathens, which is elsewhere expressly forbidden. No more is any approbation or permission of slavery found in the counsel, "Art thou called, being a servant (or slave)? care not for it." It rather means, that the privilege of being made free by the gospel, might well comfort and sustain the pious slave under the hardships and inconveniences of his situation, and that he should be less solicitous about gaining his liberty than about glorifying God in his trying situation. "But," the apostle expressly adds, "if thou mayest be made free, use it rather." It is possible for a slave to become a christian, or for a christian to be made a slave. In either case, the gospel will teach him resignation and submission to the dispensation, which, however unrighteously inflicted by men, he must regard as a trial from God; it will also teach him the hard lesson of forgiveness to his oppressors, of rendering good for evil, and enable him, by the |